Elections during emergencies and crises PDF Download

Author: Toby S. James
Publisher: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA)
ISBN: 9176716279
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 724

View

Book Description
Elections often have to be held in emergency situations. The Covid-19 pandemic was one of the most serious emergency situations that the world has seen. The rapid spread of the virus presented a huge humanitarian threat—but also an unparalleled challenge to electoral stakeholders globally seeking to protect electoral integrity during times of uncertainty. This volume identifies how the pandemic affected electoral integrity, what measures were put in place to protect elections and what worked in defending them. It brings together a comprehensive set of 26 country case studies to explore how elections were affected on the ground, what measures were put in place and what worked. These case studies are of elections which took place in the eye of the storm when practitioners and policymakers were operating under uncertainty and without the benefit of hindsight. To learn lessons in a more systematic way, this volume also provides a thematic analysis of electoral integrity during the pandemic using crossnational studies. This provides the big picture for policymakers, practitioners and academics looking back at the crisis. The volume therefore seeks to contribute towards the future development of policy and practice. However, it does so by using academic research methods and concepts which enable greater confidence in the policy lessons, as well as contributing directly to the scholarship on democracy, democratization and elections. The volume includes 11 areas of recommendation based on the evidence collected in this volume to protect electoral integrity in any future emergency situation.

Author: Robert C. Lieberman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009002929
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 427

View

Book Description
Politics in the United States has become increasingly polarized in recent decades. Both political elites and everyday citizens are divided into rival and mutually antagonistic partisan camps, with each camp questioning the political legitimacy and democratic commitments of the other side. Does this polarization pose threats to democracy itself? What can make some democratic institutions resilient in the face of such challenges? Democratic Resilience brings together a distinguished group of specialists to examine how polarization affects the performance of institutional checks and balances as well as the political behavior of voters, civil society actors, and political elites. The volume bridges the conventional divide between institutional and behavioral approaches to the study of American politics and incorporates historical and comparative insights to explain the nature of contemporary challenges to democracy. It also breaks new ground to identify the institutional and societal sources of democratic resilience.

Author: International IDEA
Publisher: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA)
ISBN: 9176713288
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 35

View

Book Description
In several countries, political parties are stepping up their digital presence in the online world. This creates opportunities for political parties to reach a wider potential audience or membership base. Digitalization has been an ongoing process in political parties across the globe, and the current pandemic is likely to accelerate this process. This Primer highlights some of the mechanisms that are being widely used and can be adopted by political parties to allow them to continue to function or operate in times of social distancing and other contexts where restrictions on social gatherings are being enforced. It also presents practical options for digitalization and developing an online presence that parties in different contexts can adapt and optimize to respond to such restrictions, and ideas to support the transformation efforts that parties are undertaking.

Author: Jonathan Murphy
Publisher: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA)
ISBN: 9176713083
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 87

View

Book Description
Parliaments in Crisis: Challenges and Innovations is the new Parliamentary Primer produced by the INTER PARES project, funded by the European Union and delivered by International IDEA. Written in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, the Primer looks at how democratic parliaments play a crucial role in making good decisions and protecting citizens’ rights during a crisis. The coronavirus pandemic has deeply impacted how we are governed. Democracies have had to adapt to operating under extreme time pressure, without losing the advantages of transparency, citizen voice, and effective policy feedback loops, that make democracy the most effective and just governance system. Parliaments are the core democratic institution representing citizens throughout the policy cycle; in creating legislative rules that govern society, in ensuring that government implements legislated programmes effectively and fairly, in voting the use of taxpayers’ resources to pay for government services, and in ensuring the diverse views of citizens are heard at every stage. During a crisis, parliaments must carry out the same functions, but more rapidly, and in often adverse circumstances. This Primer focuses on particularly two aspects of parliaments’ responses. First, it looks at how parliaments ensured that emergency measures considered the needs of all parts of the population, and also that any emergency government powers were both limited in time and scope, and subject to parliamentary oversight. Second, the Primer examines how parliaments implemented innovative solutions to enable virtual functioning. The Primer concludes by exploring how parliaments can play a key role in reviewing how effectively government responded to the crisis, identifying lessons to be implemented in improved crisis and disaster planning.

Author: Kay C. Goss
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 078814829X
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 277

View

Book Description
Meant to aid State & local emergency managers in their efforts to develop & maintain a viable all-hazard emergency operations plan. This guide clarifies the preparedness, response, & short-term recovery planning elements that warrant inclusion in emergency operations plans. It offers the best judgment & recommendations on how to deal with the entire planning process -- from forming a planning team to writing the plan. Specific topics of discussion include: preliminary considerations, the planning process, emergency operations plan format, basic plan content, functional annex content, hazard-unique planning, & linking Federal & State operations.

Author: Graham Smith
Publisher: University of Westminster Press
ISBN: 1914386183
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

View

Book Description
Covid-19 has highlighted limitations in our democratic politics – but also lessons for how to deepen our democracy and more effectively respond to future crises. In the face of an emergency, the working assumption all too often is that only a centralised, top-down response is possible. This book exposes the weakness of this assumption, making the case for deeper participation and deliberation in times of crises. During the pandemic, mutual aid and self-help groups have realised unmet needs. And forward-thinking organisations have shown that listening to and working with diverse social groups leads to more inclusive outcomes. Participation and deliberation are not just possible in an emergency. They are valuable, perhaps even indispensable. This book draws together a diverse range of voices of activists, practitioners, policy makers, researchers and writers. Together they make visible the critical role played by participation and deliberation during the pandemic and make the case for enhanced engagement during and beyond emergency contexts. Another, more democratic world can be realised in the face of a crisis. The contributors to this book offer us meaningful insights into what this could look like.

Author: Darrell M. West
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815736924
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 238

View

Book Description
Why are Americans so angry with each other? The United States is caught in a partisan hyperconflict that divides politicians, communities—and even families. Politicians from the president to state and local office-holders play to strongly-held beliefs and sometimes even pour fuel on the resulting inferno. This polarization has become so intense that many people no longer trust anyone from a differing perspective. Drawing on his personal story of growing up as a fundamentalist Christian on a dairy farm in rural Ohio, then as an academic in the heart of the liberal East Coast establishment, Darrell West analyzes the economic, cultural, and political aspects of polarization. He takes advantage of his experiences inside both conservative and liberal camps to explain the views of each side and offer insights into why each is angry with the other. West argues that societal tensions have metastasized into a dangerous tribalism that seriously threatens U.S. democracy. Unless people can bridge these divisions and forge a new path forward, it will be impossible to work together, maintain a functioning democracy, and solve the country's pressing policy problems.

Author: Erik Asplund
Publisher: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA)
ISBN: 9176716406
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 59

View

Book Description
Training is an investment in the ability of the electoral management body (EMB) ability to perform its primary task, administering an electoral contest. Building the EMB workforce’s capacities reinforces and inculcates electoral administration values and principles, those of integrity, impartiality, transparency, efficiency, sustainability and service-mindedness. By contrast, poor or inadequate training hampers service delivery and increases the risk of errors that negatively impact the reputation of the EMB or the election outcome itself. This Policy Paper addresses two different but interlinked issues: how to build and strengthen the capacities of EMB staff and workforce (both technical and lifelong learning); and how to build institutional capacities for delivering both types effectively. The paper is supplemented with findings from: a survey conducted in 2021; a 2021 case study series on the institutionalization of electoral training and education; and a 2020 workshop. This paper provides recommendations for practitioners seeking to strengthen their training and professional development programmes, as well as highlighting recommendations for the electoral assistance community.

Author: Naim Kapucu
Publisher: Jones & Bartlett Publishers
ISBN: 1449675646
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 301

View

Book Description
As the scale, frequency, and intensity of crises faced by the world have dramatically increased over the last decade, there is a critical need for a careful evaluation of knowledge of managing disasters. Managing Emergencies and Crises presents the experience of emergency management from a continental perspective by focusing on the emergency response systems, processes, and actors in the context of the United States and Europe. It explores the institutional, socio-cultural and political aspects of crisis response and management. Your students will examine questions such as: What does the experience of disaster response from Japan, Pakistan, Greece and Turkey to the UK and US tell us about the state-civil society cooperation in such environments? How effective are the existing prevention and preparedness mechanisms to protect societies against disasters? What specific roles are attributed to state, federal, international and private sector participants at a rhetorical level and how those actors actually carry out their ‘responsibilities’ and work with each other in the event of a crisis?

Author: Freedom House
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538112035
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1265

View

Book Description
Freedom in the World, the Freedom House flagship survey whose findings have been published annually since 1972, is the standard-setting comparative assessment of global political rights and civil liberties. The survey ratings and narrative reports on 195 countries and fifteen territories are used by policymakers, the media, international corporations, civic activists, and human rights defenders to monitor trends in democracy and track improvements and setbacks in freedom worldwide. The Freedom in the World political rights and civil liberties ratings are determined through a multi-layered process of research and evaluation by a team of regional analysts and eminent scholars. The analysts used a broad range of sources of information, including foreign and domestic news reports, academic studies, nongovernmental organizations, think tanks, individual professional contacts, and visits to the region, in conducting their research. The methodology of the survey is derived in large measure from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and these standards are applied to all countries and territories, irrespective of geographical location, ethnic or religious composition, or level of economic development.